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Which came first:
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by Jacquie Moore
fun listings
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More Personalities Inside: Sarah Richardson on Decorating Your Second Home + Catherine Ford on Finding Meaning in the Aughts
photo illustration
& poster art by Peter Moller
look into his “i”s
1. The Crack Band (from left to right): Chantal Vitalis, Kris
Demeanor, Peter Moller, Di Kooch.
2. The DeadRats’ album cover DeadRats In Garageland (from
left to right): Paul Morgan-Donald, Dave Clarke, Vlad Sobolewski,
Peter Moller, John Ullyatt.
3. One Yellow Rabbit’s 10th anniversary poster (from left to right):
Michael Green, Denise Clarke, Andy Curtis.
4. Collaborators and friends (from top to bottom and left to right):
Dan Meichel, Onalea Gilbertson
Rachelle van Zanten, Lester Quitzau
Keri Latimer, Dave Clarke
For the Past 30 years, Peter Moller has been
one of this city’s most diversified and hardestworking artists. He’s also a really Nice Guy.
You can tell just by looking. by Jacquie Moore
photo of Peter Moller by Brigitte von Rothemburg
it’s 1983
and your virtually unknown garagepunk band has, at long last, booked a gig at 10 Foot Henry’s, the live
indie music venue in Calgary. Trouble is, you have neither ideas nor
budget to brand your band or advertise the gig.
No worries, you’re told. Some guy has offered to make you a poster, the high-end, cutting-edge calibre of which is normally reserved
for the likes of The Dead Kennedys. And he’ll do it for free. Why? Because one of the myriad things that turns Calgary artist Peter Moller
on—has done since he was a teenaged art-college dropout—is creating “cultural propaganda.” That, and he’s just a really nice guy.
Moller (who, thanks to his Danish good looks, daily yoga regime or,
perhaps, an inordinate amount of time spent indoors in front of a computer, looks a decade younger than his 54 years) is an artist in the broadest sense. His work is visual, auditory, big, small, quiet, loud, private and
ubiquitous. If you’ve lived in Calgary for any length of time you’ve no
doubt seen and/or heard his stuff whether you realize it or not.
Under the name Egg Press, Moller has produced dozens, possibly
hundreds, of original posters for Calgary’s alternative arts scene since the
1970s. Even if you’ve never been to a One Yellow Rabbit performance
in your life, thanks in part to Moller’s 2-D interpretations you’ve gotten
a sense of the irreverent, provocative tenor of productions such as Mata
Hari, Ilsa Queen of the Nazi Love Camp and Exit the King, as well as numerous
High Performance Rodeos. Moller is also the man behind more than
half of the 30 Calgary Folk Music Festival posters and programs, and for
the past decade he’s been responsible for branding WordFest.
Brigitte Dajczer, Carolyn Mark
Karen Hines, Doug Curtis
On top of that, Moller has been the drummer for Kris Demeanor
and His Crack Band for nearly a decade and, on occasion, for the
Whip It Out Ensemble. In the ’70s and ’80s he played with Calgary
punk-slash band the Rip Chords and he’s frequently performed as a
solo percussionist. What Moller is best known for musically, however,
are his inimitable soundscapes, which have accompanied countless
shows for OYR, Alberta Theatre Projects, Theatre Calgary, Ghost
River Theatre and Theatre Junction, who hired him as a member of
the Resident Company of Artists in 2007.
Anytime between now and the end of the 2010 High Performance
Rodeo, you can get a sense for the sort of peculiar noise that plays
in Moller’s head by standing in the Epcor Centre hallway between
the offices of ATP and OYR and listening—for nearly two hours if
you’re so inclined—to a retrospective audio installation comprised of
samples from live performances designed by Moller for some of the
aforementioned theatre groups. (Alternatively, download an abbreviated version for free from his website, eggpress.ca). In the same way
that Moller’s posters stand alone as works of art, the loop, when heard
out of the context of the stage performances its sounds were intended
to accompany, makes for a completely original, oddly compelling symphony. Ominous percussive crescendos, upbeat dance rhythms and
ambient noise are interspersed with spoken lines such as “Listen, I’m
gonna have to call you right back, I’ve got Glenn Gould on the other
line—yeah, that’s right, Glenn Gould!!” and an eerie monologue Meg
Roe delivered in ATP’s Syringa Tree. It’s an eclectic auditory journey
twenty-one
that tells the listener as much about the Calgary arts scene
as it does about Moller, who, despite his involvement in
shaping the look and sound of so many seminal performances, has remained somehow on the fringe.
Sitting at the kitchen table in his predictably groovy old
Ramsay house under one of his own paintings featuring the
words “F--- Art,” Moller explains his preference for working, as he puts it, “on the outside of a project.” While it
would be reductive to pin this inclination solely on Moller’s
experience as an immigrant (his family arrived in Calgary
from Denmark in 1959), the latter perhaps helps explain
the miracle of Moller’s infinitely fresh perspective on Calgary’s arts scene even after three decades of working with
many of the same people over and over again.
“Calgary was an awesome place to grow up—my past, my
musical pals and certain cultural anchors are partly what keep
me rooted here,” says Moller, who came of age at precisely
the time the city hit some high notes, culturally speaking, with
the formation of Theatre Calgary and ATP and, in 1973, the
opening of the Alberta College of Art. Moller was among the
first students to attend the college, although, a year into his
diploma, he dropped out to learn the art of printmaking from
his dad, who ran a silkscreening business.
Ironically, Moller’s first client was Hire-A-Student,
for whom he designed business cards. He went on to create letterheads and “anything you could print” for a steel
manufacturer and various small businesses in town. When
Ten Foot Henry’s opened a few years later, Moller found an
outlet for more creative work, and joined a tribe of artists
he collaborates with to this day.
“God bless Ten Foot Henry’s,” says Moller, recalling the
trip to Denmark that sparked the genesis of the club. “My
buddy Richard McDowell got the idea for Henry’s after we
took him to the Student Club in Copenhagen. When we
got back to Calgary, Richard gave himself something like a
half a year to start his own version of the Student Club or
he was going to leave Cowtown.” Just in the nick of time,
the Funk Plaza Disco came up for rent at 509 9th St. S.W.
and McDowell, who would later become a member of the
One Yellow Rabbit ensemble, jumped in with both feet.
For Moller, Henry’s was far more than just a place to
hang out and perform with his band. “It became like this
great crucible for people like (puppeteer) Ronnie Burkett
and Michael Green and some of the other Rabbits as well
as a lot of musicians.” Green recalls the first time he saw
Moller perform—an experience that moved OYR’s co-artistic director (who was, at the time, a restaurant dishwasher
with big dreams) to vow to do whatever he could to help
him with his career. “It was at Off Centre Centre. Peter had
a standard drum set on one side of the stage and, on the
other, an assortment of kids’ percussion instruments and
colourful junk. In between was a huge metal Coca Cola
sign. Peter sat at the drum set and laid down some jazz
riffs, then threw down his sticks and jumped on the sign as
Calgary Folk Music Festival
Spontaneous Folk
Moller lists Andy Warhol as one of his artistic
influences, as evidenced by the pop-art cow on
the poster he created for the Calgary Folk Music
Festival in 2003. “It was interesting doing the 2008
ad series, which included (alderman) Joe Ceci,”
Moller says. “I had just bought a camera with a
wide-angle lens, a cheesy desk lamp powered
by a 60-watt bulb and I shot the various people
who volunteered to be in the ads at the Folk Fest
office. Sometimes as I shot, something they said
would become the caption and other times, like
with Joe, what they did led to the caption (below
right). The process was easy and the concept was
never forced—much like the relationship I’ve had
with the festival over the years.”
flexible
He’s Creative,
,
and multi-talented. He knows the Folk Fest
so well—and he’s Truly wonderful to work with.
—KerrY Clarke, artistic director, Calgary Folk Music Festival
Alternative Spaces
Golden Calgarians
Here’s what Calgary’s indie arts scene looked
like in the 1980s when venues such as The
Calgarian, Off Centre Centre and Ten Foot
Henry’s were bringing in cutting-edge acts
from all over North America as well as fostering local talent, including Moller’s band The
Rip Chords (that’s him above, circa 1983, in
a pullover his mother knit for her husband
before their son was born). Moller recalls his
process in creating the William Burroughs
poster for Pleiades Theatre: “I totally ripped
off Avedon’s photo of the great Burroughs, but
had a blast silkscreening it by just shifting the
screen and playing with multiple printings. The
event was everything you would hope for had
you had the opportunity to attend.”
if it was a launch pad to get him over to the kids’ toys—it
made this huge bong sound and, for the rest of his performance, the sign served as the metallic heartbeat of the
show as he went back and forth between the instruments.”
True to his word, Green has collaborated with Moller for
nearly three decades, tapping into his talent as a sound
artist and as “one of the city’s leading graphic designers
and visual artists.”
Many more of Moller’s Ten Foot Henry’s friends
benefited from their connection to a guy with a penchant for “making interesting and provocative stuff for
other people” and who came complete with his own
printing press. Moller created posters for many of Ronnie Burkett’s early shows as well as for bands including
The Golden Calgarians, The Slip, The Mules and Same
Difference (featuring Diane Kooch and Chantal Vitalis
who, along with Peter, now make up Kris Demeanor’s
Crack Band). Thirty-four years later, Moller smilingly
refers to Egg Press—now a full-fledged digital design
firm—as “the company that wouldn’t die.”
If Moller owes his father a debt of gratitude for
steering him toward printmaking, he’s doubly indebted
to both his parents, Paul and Elin, for a lifetime of cliché-shattering support for an artist’s life. “They’re artists
in their own right—they paint and sketch—and they’re
incredibly supportive of everything I do,” he says. Indeed, Moller’s 80-something-year-old parents proudly
sat through a Theatre Junction performance for which
their son not only composed a score, but stripped off all
his clothing onstage (clearly, when Moller makes a rare
foray out from behind the wings, he goes all out). “They
were totally comfortable with that—come on! They’re
Danish!” He adds that his parents—whom he describes
as “bottomless pits of positive energy”—used to attend
all the OYR shows they could and, afterwards, would
write reviews of the performances in a book that they
would hand over to the Rabbits to read. “They particularly liked the stuff that leaned far left,” Moller says.
Content as Moller is to work as a designer-for-hire,
branding, illustrating and inventing atmospheric sound
for “places that didn’t exist before” for shows such as
ATP’s upcoming Tyland (part of Playrites Festival of New
Canadian Plays), he admits his happiest place has always
been behind a set of drums. “Nothing can ever go wrong
when I’m there.”
You can visit Moller’s happy place at this year’s High
Performance Rodeo, when he acts and plays drums in a
performance with Kris Demeanor called Buzz Job, about
real-life Calgarian Cal Cavendish, an embittered musician
who once shovelled horse manure and a pile of his own
records out of a plane over Calgary. The story is close to
Moller’s heart as he once—you guessed it—made a poster
for the guy.
Assorted Artistic Endeavours
Gravitational Pull
This was part of a series of 10 posters created by Moller
for a display at the Telus World of Science a few years
back. “I was trying to have fun with the idea of gravity, so if
a kid saw it he’d think it was funny.” As is the case with all
of Moller’s favourite clients/projects, the World of Science
gave the artist free reign to run with whatever fantastic
ideas he came up with.
twenty-four
Comrades in Design
Moller designed this striking book cover (above) for awardwinning Calgary-based performer Karen Hines, as well as
posters for her various projects as her alterego Pochsy.
Moller says when he and Hines collaborate, “we sorta turn
into Russian spies circa 1969—she calls me Petrov and I
call her comrade, which is what she is.”
renaissance guy.
Peter’s a real
He’s extraordinary. He’s a prince to work with,
He’s patient, he’s forgiving and he just goes with it.
He also works his buns off.
Selfless Promotion
Moller created this promo sheet for Kris Demeanor’s critically accaimed 2002 CD
Lark. Coming up with the logos, posters and ad campaign was a joyous act by
Moller on behalf of his longtime bandmates. “I’m so lucky to know and play with Kris,
Chantal (Vitalis) and Di (Kooch). We truly love each other. The playing is natural and
unforced. We hear each other. We are brothers and sisters.”
—Anne Green, director, WordFest
WordFest
It’s a Famly Affair
If he’s learned nothing else in his career,
Moller has learned this: “When there’s no
budget for doing a photo shoot and hiring
models, turn to your family and loved ones.
They’ll work for nothing!” Case in point: the
third poster from the left features Moller’s
father, Paul. This year will mark a decade of
collaboration between Moller and WordFest.
twenty-five
One Yellow Rabbit
an oyr show
When peter shows us a poster for
he’s not just representing the performance.
he’s become a collaborator on the piece.
—Michael Green, co-artistic director, One Yellow Rabbit
Random Acts of Collaboration
Posters For Everyone!
Moller’s resumé touches on pretty much every theatre, dance and literary event that’s
taken place in Calgary over the past quarter-century. As he says, “There’s so much cool
cultural stuff that can be supported in our burg, you just have to go out and do it.” Moller,
who calls the Old Trout puppeteers “wonderful fellow-freaks,” created the image for the
Istvan poster by simply placing the puppet “face down on the scanner”—voilà! As for the
appropriately distorted face on the poster he created for Bug Incision (who, small world,
performed in Grandstand during the first week of the 2010 High Performance Rodeo),
Moller says, “The nearest model is never very far away—just turn the camera on yourself.”
twenty-six
Pulling Rabbits Out of His Hat
After 25 years, Moller is still challenged by
and exuberant about working with the Rabbits.
“Have I mentioned I’m lucky?” he says. Egg
Press had been going for a few years when
OYR was born; in those early days, says
Moller, “they let me do whatever I wanted, and
a series of fairly interesting posters resulted.”
2010 High Performance Rodeo
Theatre, dance, films, a peep show, wine and music, including Peter Moller’s ambient,
acoustic experience, Warning: Sound. For more info and tickets visit hprodeo.ca.
fri jan 15
Smooth: French Electro Soul The French
trio blends pop, soul, funk and hip-hop. It’s a
combination that generally results in a packed
dance floor. MR. 10 p.m. $9-$15.
fri jan 15 to sun jan 17
Last Stand to Reason Improvised physical comedy that finds funnymen Shenoah
Allen and Mark Chavez boarding the Stanton
Bullet, a luxury train hurtling toward disaster. LT. Times vary. $25 - $28.
fri jan 15 to sun jan 31
Warning: Sound A unique musical installation containing the very best works of local
theatrical sound designer Peter Moller. In the
+15 Skywalks of the Epcor Centre. Free.
fri jan 15 and sat jan 16
Buzz Job: The True Story of Cal
Cavendish On April 11, 1975, folk singer Cal
Cavendish dropped 100 copies of his latest
record and 100 pounds of horse manure from
his single-engine plane onto 9th Avenue. Kris
Demeanor and David van Belle revive the
tale. VS. Times vary. $25 - $28.
White Cabin A mixed multimedia performance by AKHE, pioneers of Russian
Engineering Theatre, that is brimming with
images of Russian icons, silent films and
acrobatic chaos. TJG. 8 p.m. $25 - $35.
In Paradisum Coleman Lemieux &
Compagnie present three dances choreographed by James Kudelka. MBT. 8 p.m.
$39-$45.
dark side of Japanese social-networking sites.
BST. 8 p.m. $19-$25.
wed jan 20
This is My City: Showcase Cabaret
Performances by members of the drama
club, standup workshops as well as the
Drop-In Centre Singers and the Found Sound
Orchestra. At the Central Library. 6:30 p.m.
thu jan 21
Soundasaurus—Negativland The first
day of the three-day experimental media fest
features a screening of Adventures in Illegal
Art, which looks at 20 years of Negativland’s
culture jamming. EAT. 7 p.m. $12.
thu jan 21 to sat jan 23
Skins: Bodies for Sale W&M Physical
Theatre presents an in-your-face dance
“ripped from the headlines of the Polish
press.” DSW. 10 p.m. $19-$25.
cludes with a seminar to discuss central
issues like “can the arts be used to address
social justice?” CPT. 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Free but registration required: thisismycity.
calgary@gmail.com or 403-268-4545.
Art Matters The topic of discussion is,
“What is the power and purpose of using the
arts to engage in social issues?” CPT. 2:30
p.m. This event is free but those wishing
to attend must RSVP to 403-268-4545
or thisismycity@gmail.com.
tue jan 26 to sat jan 30
wed jan 27 to sun jan 31
Power Play: Homelessness This piece
of Forum Theatre comes out of a weeklong
workshop whose participants have been
homeless in Calgary; part of the This
is My City project. CPT. Times vary. Paywhat-you-can.
No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre
sat jan 23
thu jan 28 to sat jan 30
Bravo!FACT Screening The Foundation
Dedicated to the Revolutions This is
a low-tech—ukulele, tin-can telephones and
Jenga—look at seven scientific revolutions.
BST. 8 p.m. $25-$28.
This is My City: Open Art Workshops
Cavanagh looks at the unending battle
of the sexes. TBG. 2 p.m. Free, but
donations welcome.
This is My City, This is Your City:
Symposium The year-long project con-
fri jan 22 and sat jan 23
with Mr. Scruff, Pretty Lights, Beats Antique
and Bruno Changkye. 5 p.m. Free.
The He/She Plays Playwright Sharon
sun jan 24
experimental media fest features Adam
Tindale, Clinker and others. EAT. 7 p.m. $12.
Snowblower A free party at Olympic Plaza
sun jan 17
There’s nothing like “an alien opus
performed by avatars in the virtual world
of Second Life” to wrap up three days of
experimental media work. EAT. 7 p.m. $12.
PIG: A Backdoor Peep Show Evangeline
Evangelista’s travelling rock ’n’ roll prayer
tent is also a peep show and a “prairie gothic
rock opera.” VS. 8 p.m. $19-$25.
fri jan 22
Soundasaurus—Eklektika Day 2 of the
to Assist Canadian Talent brings a smorgasbord of short films to town. USS. 2 p.m. $14
in advance, pay-what-you-can at the door.
sat jan 16
Soundasaurus—Jeremy Owen Turner
This is where the This is My City programming gets hands-on, giving folks that chance
to make a little art. The sessions happen at
the Drop-In Centre and the Mustard Seed.
To register, call 403-604-3476.
Vancouver’s Electric Company Theatre
returns to town with this adaptation of
Sartre’s existential classic that combines
live action and theatre. MBT. Times vary.
$39-$55.50.
Tono A dance and musical blend of three
indigenous cultures—Chinese, Mongolian
and Canadian. TJG. 8 p.m. $39-$45.
sat jan 30
Wine Stage One Yellow Rabbit’s annual
fundraiser combines fine wine and fine
dining. At the Hotel Arts. 7:30 p.m. $99. S
Two Bit Oper-Eh?-Shun
An oratorio created by Onalea Gilbertson and
composer Marcel Bergmann based on stories
shared by clients of the Drop-In Centre. GPC.
7:30 p.m. $22-$28.
venues: BST Big Secret Theatre, Epcor
mon jan 18 to sun jan 24
This is My City: Art Exhibition A display of work originating in the City of
Calgary’s year-long program pairing
homeless people with artist mentors. CC,
CHA and Glenbow Museum. Free.
tue jan 19 to sat jan 23
Blind Date When a Parisian clown gets
stood up, she does what any gal would
do—she improvises (with an audience
member). LT. Times vary. $25-$28.
Kawasaki Exit Rodeo hosts One Yellow
Rabbit add their contribution to the smorgasbord. The new work centres on the
Warning: Sound
Enter Peter Moller’s wonderful world of
sound: bask in two decades’ worth of the
transporting ambient noise that gave
countless local stage performances—
everything from Macbeth and Beowulf to
The Pillowman—their startling, romantic,
eerie atmospheres. Until Jan. 31, Epcor
Centre hallways. Free.
Centre, 225 8th Ave. S.E. CC Centre Court,
Epcor Centre, 225 8th Ave. S.E. CHA City
Hall Atrium, 800 Macleod Tr. S.E. CPT
ConocoPhillips Theatre, Glenbow Museum,
130 9th Ave. S.E. DSW Dancers’ Studio
West, 2007 10th Ave. S.W. EAT Engineered
Air Theatre, Epcor Centre, 205 8th Ave.
S.E. GPC Grace Presbyterian Church, 1009
15th Ave. S.W. LT Lunchbox Theatre, 160,
115 9th Ave. S.E. MBT Max Bell Theatre,
Epcor Centre, 240 9th Ave. S.E. MR
Marquee Room, Uptown Stage & Screen,
612 8th Ave. S.W. TBG TrépanierBaer
Gallery, 105, 999 8th St. S.W. TJG Theatre
Junction Grand, 608 1st St. S.W. USS
Uptown Stage & Screen, 612 8th Ave. S.W.
VS Vertigo Studio, 161, 115 9th Ave. S.E.